churchill

70 – Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, opens a full assault on Jerusalem and attacks the city's Third Wall.

1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England. Grudgingly.

1863 - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died of pneumonia a week after losing his arm when his own troops accidentally fired on him. Maybe if he hadn’t stonewalled them, his troops wouldn’t have shot him. He gave them the cone.

1869 - Peeps from the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a golden spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history.

1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit. Don't freak out, the ruling applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purpose.

1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI), he wore a dress to the occasion.

1940 - Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter's resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. Diplomacy + the Nazis = didn’t work out.

Also today, ‘Ol Nazi Hess parachuted into Scotland, hoping to negotiate peace with Britain, through the Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess claimed to have met at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Such a peace would have prevented Germany from fighting on two fronts. Instead, he went to the Tower of London, and had the honor of being the last man held there under guard.

1994 – John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer was put down.

1996 – A wicked, awful storm near the summit of Mount Everest kills eight climbers, making this the deadliest day in the mountain's history. Among the dead are experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, both of whom were leading paid expeditions to the summit.

1999 – Shel Silverstein, American poet and composer was eaten by a Boa Constrictor. He narrated it.

2002 – F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for a lot of cash and diamonds.